Good as gold, brother

Ben Cousins gets on with life after release from prison

BEN Cousins is in a buoyant mood as he begins trying to rebuild his shattered life.

Cousins, 39, has spoken for the first time since walking out of Perth’s Acacia prison 10 days ago, determined to stay off drugs and reconnect with his two children.

Sporting a rugged jailhouse beard and long hair, the Brownlow Medallist is barely recognisable from his Australian Football League premiership playing days with the West Coast Eagles.

But he looked happy and sober when asked how he was doing.

“Yeah, good. Good as gold, brother,” he said.

Cousins is staying at the family home on the Swan River as he looks to spend more time with son Bobby, 6, and daughter Angelique, 4, and start a job at the Eagles.

“Yeah, I’m all right,” he said.

Family and friends have been praying the fallen Eagle can stay on track after serving 10 months’ jail for stalking his ex-partner, Maylea Tinecheff, and for drug possession.

“He’s had a lot of prayers. Please, God, he will be all right,” one relative said.

“She [Ms Tinecheff] is fine. The kids are all right. They’re stable and happy.

“We wish that he gets on with his life and that he’ll be OK. It’s a horrible thing, addiction,” the relative said.

“He’ll come out the other end, I’m sure of it.”

The children visited Cousins at his parents’ home on the day of his release.

He appeared over the moon to be with them: images showed him throwing them in the air in celebration.

Cousins must remain at the family home and submit to regular drug tests until his par- ole ends on February 24. Friends believe when he was jailed for subjecting his expartner to what the magistrate called “nine months of terror”, he may finally have hit rock bottom.

Cousins had texted Ms Tinecheff up to 103 times a day, making more than 2000 attempts to contact her between October 2016 and his arrest last February, despite a restraining order.

When arrested he was caught with 8g of methamphetamine. A court heard that amount would have lasted him four days, based on the rate of his drug use at the time.

Cousins’s lawyer told the court his client had contacted Ms Tinecheff because he was desperate to see his children.

It was this that had led to his erratic behaviour.

While in prison, Cousins completed some rehabilitation programs and began to play tennis every day.

Those close to him don’t want to impose unrealistic expectations on him.

They know that beating his decades-long drug addiction is a day-by-day challenge.

Cousins has been clean before.